"You never see anything interesting in a swim through"

[Ron Lee]

But Ron..."you never see anything interesting in a swim through"...except perhaps for a BIG Caribbean Gray Reef Shark in Punta Sur Sur. Someday I will force you to tell that story. I won't because I never embarrass a diver.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

You are free to repeat the story and correct any mistakes in my recollection. Here goes.

I have done swim throughs in Cozumel...including Devil's Throat. As my diving preferences evolve/change, swim throughs have become less and less interesting to me. After all, you NEVER see anything in a swim through. So I will often go around or over a reef segment while others swim through boring dead coral.

If you have been diving with Dave, he seems to enjoy swim throughs. That is fine. For years I have mentioned my view that you never see anything in swim throughs. It is just dead coral. Sure someone ahead might stir up some sand/coral flakes and you could possibly see it as an underwater snow globe, but that is about it.

Yes, I would rather be outside looking for turtles, eagle rays, juvenile yellowtail damselfish, trunkfish or anything besides boring dead coral.

Then one day I end up on a boat with Dave again. I do not remember who else was on the dive but once we approached the reef I was behind and maybe a little to the left of Dave as he enters what I recall as an arch structure. It was a nice big opening and probably not very long...perhaps 20-30 yards but that is not well remembered.

I am already in a relaxed state, just minding my own business when partway into this structure I look up and there is a shark coming at us. This is not a nurse shark or a big trunkfish. Dave IDed it and I will take his word on the species. I do not recall whether it went by us but it probably turned around and left. It must have turned. Had it gone by us it would have been close enough to touch.

No doubt Dave was giddy with excitement that he debunked my view that you never see anything in swim throughs. I will offer up to the assembled divers that where we saw it may not constitute a swim through. If Dave can give a better description of the size and length of that opening, maybe my view of swim throughs is still valid.

Regardless, it was a neat experience. I will note that I had a great experience while waiting on the ocean side of the Devil's Throat reef...north of the throat while others did their thing in those dead coral lined passages. As is often the case, I am just waiting in place, minding my own business, when out of the corner of my left eye I see something. It is a nice loggerhead turtle that is coming right at me. Not aggressively of course, just normal graceful movement as he veers a bit and passes in front of me.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have done swim throughs in Cozumel...including Devil's Throat. As my diving preferences evolve/change, swim throughs have become less and less interesting to me. After all, you NEVER see anything in a swim through. So I will often go around or over a reef segment while others swim through boring dead coral.

If you have been diving with Dave, he seems to enjoy swim throughs. That is fine. For years I have mentioned my view that you never see anything in swim throughs. It is just dead coral. Sure someone ahead might stir up some sand/coral flakes and you could possibly see it as an underwater snow globe, but that is about it.

Yes, I would rather be outside looking for turtles, eagle rays, juvenile yellowtail damselfish, trunkfish or anything besides boring dead coral.

This is the sort of thing that sounds like a put down when people ask cave divers why they do it, and they respond, "You either get it or you don't." I think it makes more sense if they say "You either FEEL it or you don't." It is not a put down. Some divers are really drawn to diving in structures, and they love to go through enclosures, the tighter the better. Others much prefer looking at the wild life. Neither is right. Neither is wrong. It is just two different interests.

Not long ago I dives with someone, someone familiar to ScubaBoard regulars, in a shallow site in Puget Sound. As we went along, we encountered a discarded sewer pipe, just larger than a diver in diameter and just longer than a diver in length. She had to go through it. She had no choice but to obey that compulsion. It had nothing to do with what was to be seen. It was something unexplainable to anyone else. No explanation was needed for me--if our dive pattern had been slightly to the right, I would have been the one going through it.

I imagine that if there are any Freudian psychologists left, they would have an explanation, one I already know and reject. Whatever the reason, some people like that experience. Some people don't. Neither will ever understand the other.

 

[dfx]

Last swim through I've done (last week) was at around 100 ft off Riviera Maya, through the arch at Los Arcos. There was a nice big crab sitting right there under the arch. Previous to that, there was a nice shallow one in Bermuda. Huge school of fish hanging out in the tunnel. But ok, neither of those were in Cozumel. The one we did in Cozumel, we went over it and watched the bubbles come up. That was more interesting than the static coral all around.

 

[robbcayman]

This is the sort of thing that sounds like a put down when people ask cave divers why they do it, and they respond, "You either get it or you don't." I think it makes more sense if they say "You either FEEL it or you don't." It is not a put down. Some divers are really drawn to diving in structures, and they love to go through enclosures, the tighter the better. Others much prefer looking at the wild life. Neither is right. Neither is wrong. It is just two different interests.

Not long ago I dives with someone, someone familiar to ScubaBoard regulars, in a shallow site in Puget Sound. As we went along, we encountered a discarded sewer pipe, just larger than a diver in diameter and just longer than a diver in length. She had to go through it. She had no choice but to obey that compulsion. It had nothing to do with what was to be seen. It was something unexplainable to anyone else. No explanation was needed for me--if our dive pattern had been slightly to the right, I would have been the one going through it.

I imagine that if there are any Freudian psychologists left, they would have an explanation, one I already know and reject. Whatever the reason, some people like that experience. Some people don't. Neither will ever understand the other.

I agree 100%. I've never been a cave or swim thru person. Oh.. I've done it, but found it boring. However, I know everyone has different interests and that's fine with me. I prefer the reef, sharks, fish etc.. I don't see why others care so much what someone else likes or doesn't like. You're 100% right, though. There is no right or wrong.. just do what you like and let others do the same.

I will add that I saw a massive crab one time on a swim thru in Coz that was really a cool thing to see.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

It was in a long and reasonably tight swim through, the first one to encounter at the south end of Punta Sur Sur. It was a large Caribbean Gray Reef Shark, and it did not turn around, just passing us and nearly brushing me, and I thought that for sure it brushed you. The best part of this story was that on the boat ride down you repeatedly moaned that "you never see anything interesting in a swim through". Oh yea!

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[TV Mark]

Crabs must like swim throughs. In the cavern before you get to the Throat a giant crab decided to jump on us from the ceiling.
He almost landed on Leang's back. Claws raised, he backed off to the side of the cavern. That was interesting.

 

[Okie Mike]

Black Cap Basslets, often upside-down oriented to the ceiling of the swim through, are one of my favorite fish, and swim throughs are the only place I see them.

 

[tracydr]

I was on a deep dive in Hawaii with Jack's Dive Locker. We saw a huge fish in a big tube/arch structure at about 105 feet. The fish was longer than I am tall and it was taller than it was long. Nobody could identify it and we never did find it on any of the fish ID charts. Even Jeff, the DM,who's dived Hawaii for years, couldn't figure out what the fish was. He thought it might be something visiting from far away. It kind of looked like a mola,but not quite.
So, sometimes,you do see cool stuff in swim throughout. I'm very drawn to any kind of swim through or cave,anyway.

 

[Ray and Pam]

It's good buoyance practise for me, I try to be the last one thru and see if I can make it without touching anything or stirring up the bottom.
I take a flashlite and have see quit a bit of color in them.
Sadly I saw a memorial plaque in one.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Crabs must like swim throughs. In the cavern before you get to the Throat a giant crab decided to jump on us from the ceiling.
He almost landed on Leang's back. Claws raised, he backed off to the side of the cavern. That was interesting.

Wait... did the crab back off with claws raised, or was it Leang?


I like swim troughs. But I also like caves. It's true that you see less fish in the longer/tighter ones, but, more than you'll see in a cave. And in some of the large-diameter tubes, you can see all kinds of stuff. Last May, off Oahu, we found a Titan Scorpionfish and a couple turtles in swimthroughs.